A bipartisan group of senators has taken “if at first you don’t succeed, try again” to heart with a new proposal aimed at cracking down on stock trades by members of Congress once and for all.

The Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, drawn up by five senators (four Democratic and one Republican), may have the teeth to make a difference on the Hill:

• It would require members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children to divest from their assets starting in 2027.
• Lawmakers would also be banned from trading for the 90 days after the bill becomes law.
• The penalty for breaking the law would be either a lawmaker’s monthly salary or 10% of the value of the asset in violation—whichever is bigger.
• The act requires divestment of assets even if put in a blind trust.

New legislation is a long time coming

The acronym experts over in Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act in 2012, which requires members and their spouses to disclose trades over $1,000 within 45 days. But that hasn’t had its intended effect, probably because the only deterrent to trading is a $200 fine if you don’t report it in time. No other proposals, of which there have been plenty, have gone far enough to reach a committee.

On the bright side: The government’s failure to address politicians’ use of their positions for financial gain has fueled plenty of public criticism, driven in part by fintech putting access to privileged information in the spotlight.

• A pair of ETFs following Democratic and Republican politicians’ trades have outperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, respectively.
• The Autopilot app lets users copy trades of individuals like Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul (his tracker is up 45% this year).

Looking ahead…the bill is expected to make its next step—heading to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for markup—as soon as July 24.—CC

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Samsung officially launched the Galaxy Ring. After months of teasing prototypes, the Korean tech giant announced its highly anticipated smart ring at an event in Paris yesterday. The Galaxy Ring will cost $400 and track users’ health data like sleep, heart rate, skin temp, and women’s menstrual cycles. Galaxy is the first smart ring from one of the world’s big hardware tech companies, following efforts from smaller firms like Oura to develop a snazzy piece of jewelry that knows everything about you. Samsung’s ring could position the company to better compete with Apple in creating an ecosystem of interconnected devices. At the event, Samsung also unveiled other products, including smartwatches and foldable smartphones.

Microsoft gave up its seat on OpenAI’s board amid regulatory scrutiny. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft abandoned its post as an observer on the board after realizing it was bothering antitrust officials who were looking into the relationship between the two companies. Apple, which was expected to take a similar seat on the OpenAI board, will reportedly no longer do so. Regulators in both the US and UK have been concerned with Big Tech’s investments in artificial intelligence. Microsoft has given $13 billion to OpenAI in exchange for about 49% of the startup’s for-profit operations.

Biden announced tariffs on Chinese steel routed through Mexico. Per the new rule, steel imports from Mexico will be subject to a 25% tax unless it’s documented to have been “melted and poured” in the US, Canada, or Mexico, Reuters reported. The rule is an effort from the Biden administration to stop China from exploiting a loophole that allows it to avoid existing levies by funneling metals to the US via its southern neighbor. US officials have been increasingly worried that China’s excess industrial capacity is cheaply flooding global markets at the expense of domestic companies.

If you remember seeing Alien in theaters, your least favorite nuclear plant might be headed for a comeback. Energy company Constellation is in talks with Pennsylvania officials to restart a unit on Three Mile Island power facility, the location of the historic 1979 nuclear meltdown, according to a Reuters exclusive.

Nothing is official. But two sources told Reuters that the conversations were “beyond preliminary.”

Why now? When the plant was officially shuttered in 2019, the cost of nuclear energy couldn’t compete with cheap natural gas and highly subsidized green energy options. But now, there’s more demand for carbon-free(ish) energy—and nuclear has never looked more attractive to politicians. The power demand from data centers is expected to triple by 2030, requiring 9% of the US total power supply thanks to the rapid growth of AI development, per the Electric Power Research Institute.

Big picture: The US has never reopened a shuttered nuclear plant. There are numerous regulatory, financial, and environmental hurdles that would need to be cleared before a plant could flip the switch back on. But the nuclear industry wants to move quickly ahead of a potential change to a presidential administration that isn’t as keen on ditching fossil fuels as the current one.—MM

The problem with AI. ChatGPT makes massive mistakes. It’s not truly thinking or learning. New Sapience has developed digital AI assistants that actually learn and think the way humans do. Bill Gates said an AI breakthrough at this level would be “worth 10 Microsofts.” And you have just a few more hours to invest in New Sapience and get 5% bonus stock.

This is probably the most American thing you’ll hear today: People in a handful of small towns can now buy gun ammunition from vending machines in grocery stores, the Associated Press reported this week.

They’re owned and operated by American Rounds, a one-year-old Dallas-based company. CEO Grant Magers said the automated touch-screen dispensers, which are federally approved, verify customers’ ages by scanning their photo IDs and faces and using AI to match the two.

• People 21 and up can tap to buy shotgun, rifle, and handgun rounds 24/7 like they’re using a McDonald’s order kiosk, except the whole exchange only takes two minutes or less.
• Magers said he’s received 200+ store requests for the vending machines, but right now only six are up and running: four in Super C Mart locations in Oklahoma, one in a Fresh Value grocery in Alabama, and one in a Lowe’s Market in Texas right next to a middle school, Matt Roy reported.

Gun control advocates are concerned…especially after an Independence Day weekend in which gun violence killed at least 33 people. While they welcome facial recognition and age verification tech in firearm sales, safety advocates would rather see these types of protections in gun stores or online—where retailers sometimes fail to verify buyers’ ages—than in the places where you buy bread and cheese.—ML

Gwyneth Paltrow and the US women’s gymnastics team have at least one thing in common: They can never have too many crystals. The American gymnastics team unveiled its new leotards for the upcoming Paris Olympics yesterday, and some include 10,000 hand-placed crystals, up from a pathetic 6,400 for the Tokyo Games three years ago. Each leo would fetch up to $5,000 on the retail market, the New York Times reported. “The more crystals, the more impact, the more the leotards are talked about,” Jeanne Diaz, the design director of GK Elite, told the NYT. Fans can buy replica leotards, which replace the crystals with “spanglez,” for $90.